Life at the House of Night
by Desdemona M. Scout
Summary: A new take on the life of Zoey Redbird. Zoey Redbird has just arrived at the House of Night, and soon strange things start to happen. She soon finds that the only way to save the school, and the world, is to team up with Aphrodite. But Aphrodite does not like how her sexy Vampyer boyfriend, Erik Night, seems so interested in Zoey.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I look around my new unfamiliar room. One side has a bed with pink sheets and comforter, posters of punk rock bands and some country rock bands, and a few photos that of which are set on a farm. That is my new roommate's side of the room. My side is barren. All of my belongings are at my old house. I don't feel like I belong in this new place. But it's not like it can be any worse than my old home. I haven't belonged there in a long time, either

I just came here this afternoon, that's when it happened. I was walking with my best friend Kayla, but I call her K. She was talking, as she tends to do, in a nonstop string of chatter. I always found it endearing how she talks in circles without saying anything, but for some reason it really got on my nerves today. I had a killer headache that I gave the math test I was pretty sure I just failed credit to. Then I saw the dead guy at my locker. I stared shocked.

"And then Heath was doing this keg stand. He is so cool Zoe, you should've seen it. Your mom and step-loser are such…Hey, girl," She gave me a curious look when I halted, "Are you listening? Zoe, are you okay? You look really pail and you've had that nasty cough all day," She gave a worried look when I didn't say anything. Why couldn't she see a vampyer standing right next to my locker? I also wondered why no one else said anything about it as they rushed out the door to begin their weekends. "I think the nurse is still here. Wait right here, I'll go get…"

But she was cut short when the vampyer turned his head to look at me. Right at me. _Fuck, dammit _I thought to myself. This guy is a tracker. "Zoey Redbird!" he said. "You have been marked by Nyx as one of Her children. Join the House of Night and start your new life!" I then felt pain on my forehead, like someone had punched me really hard.

When I opened my eyes K was shaking me and crying for me to wake up. "Zoey?"

I felt tears sting my eyes. I would have to go to the House of Night finishing school located outside of town. Vampyers were not fully accepted in society yet. It would be difficult to continue a relationship with my friends and family. But I made a promise to myself right there that I would continue to have a relationship with them until they grew old and died. And I would still look young and have 1,000+ years to live. I would never be able to have kids.

"Zoey?" K said. "I have to go. My bus will leave soon. Do you want to ride home…?"

My senses were now heightened. K was trying to be kind, but I could smell her fear. I could hear her heart beating. I could almost see the blood pumping through her veins. I felt my fangs come out. I pushed K away and stood up.

"Just leave me alone!" I said. I turned, hiding my fangs, and ran away.

Newly marked Vampyers need to be around adult Vampyers or else they will die. Even if you were around the adults, your body could reject the Vampyer change and you would die. Only once you have completed the change between ages 18 and 20 do you finally have to stop worrying about dying.

When I got home my mother cried when she saw the blue mark on my forehead. She didn't say anything until John came home. He looked shocked and proclaimed I was a heathen. I rushed into my room and slammed the door shut.

After I was done crying, I decided to go talk to my parents. I opened my door and heard them talking in hushed voices.

"I do not- I refuse to send her to that school," he said. He knew if I didn't go then I would die. What did he care? Mom was pregnant with his real child.

I packed a small bag of my clothes and snuck out the window. My promise I had made in the hall was coming apart. My mother cried at the sight of me, my stepfather finally had the reason he had always longed for to get me out of his family, and K shook with fear at the sight of me. I was a Vampyer, a freak; the stuff scary stories are made of.

My phone dinged. It was a text from Heath asking if I wanted to hang out tonight. I ignored it and walked to my car. I turned the key and drove out of the driveway. Heath would never want to kiss me again.

My inner thoughts are interrupted as my roommate burst through the door. She dumps out book from her bag and puts new ones in, all the while saying "Late, late."

She is wearing cowboy boots and ratty sweatpants. She has a shirt with a picture of Taylor Swift on it. She has curly blonde hair that is cut up to her light green eyes.

As she turns to leave the room she spots me. "Whoa," she says. "I didn't see you there. Oh, are you my roommate? You know I've been here three months and ain't ever had a roommate? I was worried I'd spend the next two or so years here alone."

I try to say something but she doesn't seem to notice.

"Well, not all alone. I have got some social skills, you know. I made a fair amount of friends-four of 'em I'm really close to, don't you worry- you can sit with us at 'lunch'. But you know what I mean, alone as in living alone. I'm not used to it on account of I roamed with my brother- I have four, you see, and we ain't got enough rooms"

"Nice to meet you," I say when she has to pause for a breath. "My name is Zoey. Aren't you going to be late?"

Her eyes go wide. "Yes! Gotta get to class!" She runs out the door and says, "Thanks for reminding me." She shuts the door but then opens it again a second later." Don't be worrying, you ain't got to go to class on you first day."

"Oh, I know. Neferet explained everything when I got here."

She smiles. "Isn't she the best?"

I nod and she leaves again but then comes back again. "Btw, Stevie-Rae, but everyone calls me Rae."

I don't have time to answer as she shuts the door one last time and disappears for the rest of the day.

A few hours later men come to my door and deliver my things from home. I do not ask how they got here. John and mom already made it clear that they don't want any part of me anymore. Clearing their house of all of my belongings without even coming by themselves is just the final nail in the coffin. Pun intended.

I spend the next hour or so unpacking. When it is twelve a.m., I head out to find the dining hall. When I got here the Vampyer principle explained the backwards schedule. The longer that I am a fledgling and the closer I come to becoming a Vampyer, the more the sunlight will bother me.

When I step into the hall, an orange cat runs past me. I shriek as I nearly step on him. And I'm glad that no one was around to hear me get scared by a cat.

I walk around the school for a while and study the map that Neferet has given me. I curse myself for not having a better sense of direction. After ten minutes I see a girl sitting on a bench in the hall.

She has beautiful blonde hair that is not curly or strait, but wavy in the nicest way that I have ever seen. She is wearing a form fitting crimson red T-shirt and skinny jeans that show off her curves. She has on red sandals that match her shirt perfectly. As I walk closer I see that she has well-manicured toes and fingers that are painted black, and she has eyeliner and a light shade of black eye shadow on.

I swallow my pride and open my mouth to ask for directions. She looks at me with a look of curiosity on her face. And then her eyes roll back in her head and she starts to shake violently.

"Help!" I scream. "Someone please help!"

I sit next down on the bench next to her and grab her shoulders to steady her. "Aphrodite? Aphrodite, what's wrong?"

She stops shaking. Her eyes regain focus. She looks momentarily confused and then she pushes my hands off of her. "Get the fuck off me," she says. As soon as my hands leave she slumps down in the bench.

Neferet comes down the hall. In her fast yet graceful pace her black gown and long auburn hair flow in the wind. "What's wrong?" she looks at Aphrodite and her worried expression relaxes. "Come to my office and we'll talk about it."

I am confused and apparently Neferet can tell. "The Goddess has blessed this child as a seer. She always appears ill while and after having a vision."

Some blessing. Aphrodite had looked like she was having a seizure.

"Come with me, child," Neferet says. She puts her arm around Aphrodite to steady her and begins leading her to the principal's office.

Aphrodite mutters something under her breath.

"What was that, child?" Neferet said.

"Never mind, I, it was nothing," Aphrodite replies

Neferet tells me to go down the hall and make a left and then a right to find the dining hall even though I don't ask her where it is. Then she and Aphrodite continue walking.

As I follow Neferet's directions to the dining hall I try to keep my mind away from what had just happened. Vampyers sometimes have gifts, everyone know that. That is not why I felt a sense of foreboding. I had heard what the girl said.

She had said, "How do you know my name?"

I don't know. I don't know how I knew.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The lunch is served normal school cafeteria style. I get spaghetti and a coke. I look around to see if there are any empty sits. I spot Rae and she waves at me to come sit.

I am happy that I do not have to sit alone.

Other than Rae, there are four people at the table. Two of them are identical twins with brown hair and eyes. One has short hair in little braids; the other's is long and strait. They are wearing the same style of dress, but the one with braids dress is blue and the strait haired one is red.

"This is Shanna," Rae says. She indicates with to the one with the blue dress. "And this is her sister, Erin."

"Hi," they say simultaneously. They both give the same wide toothy smile.

"They is a bit of an anomaly or somn' like that. 'Cause it's real rare that someone in the same family, let alone twin sisters, are both marked."

"Shanna was marked about a," Erin said.

"Month before Erin," Shanna finished.

"I was afraid I was never going to see her again, but," Erin said.

"Then she was marked," Shanna said. They both laugh happily but slightly nervous like they had narrowly escaped Ghost Face and it was the end of the movie.

"That's great," I said. "That you guys are going through this together, I mean."

Shanna nodded. "It's scary and a little weird at first. But after a while you'll see it's not so bad."

"Yeah, it's not all that bad. People get a little carried away with all the scary Vampyer myth bull shit," Erin said.

"Especially we are from," Shanna said.

"You're not from Tulsa?" I asked.

"No," Erin said. "We lived in a town deeper in the South. They don't even have any Vampyer schools around there."

"Where are you from?" asked one of the two boys.

"Right here in Tulsa," I said. "I go, or I used to go, to Broken Arrow High School."

The boy is chubby, but in a cute kind of way. He is wearing kakis and a green sweater vest. He has short brown hair.

"Zoey, this here is Damien," Rae says. "And this is his boyfriend, Jack." She points to the last kid at the table. He has sandy blonde hair and wears round glasses. He just wears a plain grey T-shirt and jeans.

The five friends talk with a sense of intimacy, and although they ask me the occasional question, I do not feel I am a part of their inner circle. My ears perk up when I hear them mention Aphrodite.

"I saw her in Vamp 101, I wonder why she isn't here now," Jack says

"Who the fuck cares where she is?" Erin says. "Hag from Hell."

"Hag from Hell?" I ask.

"That's our little nickname for that Queen B slut and her minions,"

"Vampyers really have minions?" I exclaim.

Rae laughs "No. That's what we call her friends. They are a part of this group called the Dark Daughters. There a club and they perform the ceremony for the Nyx in front of the whole school once a week. Actually, the next ceremony is tomorrow."

"I think it's really fucked up," Shanna says. "The ceremony is a religious experience and I think that 'ho is the last person who should be in charge of it, or even apart of it."

"Why?" I ask. "What did she do?"

Everyone at the table rolls their eyes.

"What hasn't she done?" Erin says.

"More like, who hasn't she done," Damian says.

"There's a rumor," Jack says. "That she was, um well, kissing Erik Night in the middle of the hall."

Shanna snorts. "Yeah, 'kissing', in a bad place."

"Oh," I say. "I can't believe that she is like that. I saw her in the hall on the way her when she was having a vision. She seemed so weak and vulnerable. Not like the type of person who would act like such a slut."

"Now I think that's the most messed up thing of all," Erin says. "I cannot believe that our Goddess gifted her."

"The worst thing about being a Vampyer is not knowing what the hell Nyx is thinking when she hands out her gifts," Shanna says.

"The worst thing about being a Vampyer," Rae says. "Is that you only get to see your family once a month on parents day. I miss my mama so much."

I think about my mother and feel queasy. I know that she will not come, because I know that John will not want to come.

"Zoey, parent's day was last week. Don't forget to call your mama and daddy before next month."

I give a small smile and nod in acknowledgment.

After lunch, Rae and her friends head back to class and I head back to my dorm room. I am so exhausted that I am afraid I'll fall down and take a little nap in the hallway.

I pass by Neferet's office on my way back and I see Aphrodite exiting the room. She is mumbling something about route 19. She appears not to notice me as she walks right past me. I think her detached attitude is a side effect from having the vision. I think about talking to her, ask if she is okay. But then I remember how strongly my new classmates' dislike her and I decide it is better for me to fit in if I just ignore her.

I see two cats and think the orange cat from earlier had gotten himself a friend. But then I realize that neither of these cats are the one I say.

When I get back to my room I collapse on my bed and am asleep within minutes.


End file.
